Books of the Month

Holiday Books. Dr. John Brown’s Rab and his Friends (Lippincott) appears in the style, which still holds, of small quarto, with eight illustrations by H. Simon and E. H. Garrett, and a portrait of the kindly author. The illustrations, which are on wood, are of moderate value, excepting one by Mr. Garrett to the words “ One look at her quiets the students.” It gives Ailie in three-quarters length, with James in shadow behind her. The color is admirable, but the most difficult feature is the best rendered, for the face is singularly strong in drawing, and the expression fully bears out the motto, ihe hands also are well drawn and expressive. How one such true piece of work lifts book decoration out of prettiness and pettiness into the dignity of real art! — Legend Laymone, a poem by M, B. M. Toland, with photogravures from drawings by eminent artists. (Lippincott.) The legend is an Indian one, and is told in a measure which is nearly as inappropriate as a measure can be for such a purpose. The chief interest attaches to the decorative work, which has the appearance of being reproductions of forms modeled in clay, and is often very effective. The full-page pictures are of varying degrees of excellence, that representing the rolling in of waves on the beach being perhaps the best. — Tennyson’s The Miller’s Daughter has also been illustrated by Peirce, Garrett, Fenn, Appleton Brown, and Woodward. (Lippincott ) The text does not compose very well with the cuts. Most of the designs are by Mr. Peirce, whose figures strike us as better than his more decorative work, and once or twice, especially in his pictures of the miller’s daughter herself, as free and natural. A good deal of the work, however, hardly rises above the conventional, and the highlycalendered paper and occasionally hard engraving tire the eye. —Personally Conducted, by Frank R. Stockton, illustrated by Joseph Pennell, Alfred Parsons, and others (Scribners), had already appeared in St. Nicholas. It is less distinctly humorous than most of Mr. Stockton ’s work, hut has the charm of his direct, frank style ; and he could not be himself if he did not now and then let fall some drollery. The illustrations are for the most part unobtrusive and sketchy. — Christmas Stories and Poems for the Little Ones, by C. Emma Cheney, Sydney Dayre, Miss V. Stuart Mosby, and others. (Lippincott.) There appears to be no principle of selection in this book as regards either text or pictures. It is a haphazard scrap-book, in which the Christmas idea is worked pretty industriously. — The publishers of the new edition of The Marble Faun (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) have placed all book-lovers in their debt. It is substantially an édition de luxe, though unlimited, not differing in essentials from the few large-paper copies (l50) previously issued, and no longer obtainable. The work is illustrated with fortynine carefully prepared photogravures of places, statues, and paintings mentioned in the romance. there is also a fine steel portrait of Hawthorne. These two volumes in their slip covers, after the Italian fashion, are an exceptional specimen of book-making. — There is no new word of praise to be said touching The Complete Angler of Walton and Cotton, but. it is not too late to commend the desirable edition of that work recently issued by Little, Brown & Co. As admirable as it is in typography and illustration, its chief charm is the essay with which Mr. Lowell has prefaced the two volumes. The large-paper copies, limited to 500, will very shortly become scarce, for no book-collector, especially no Waltonian, will be content without this edition.

Literature. A Collection of Letters of Dickens (Scribeners) has been issued, uniform with the smaller form of the similar collection of Thaekeray s letters. In this case, however, the editor has not had unpublished material, but has drawn on the letters already printed in Forster’s Life. They are delightful letters, and are not over-edited. The collection is more symmetrical than that of Thackeray could be, and to many readers it will be quite as fresh. — Character and Comment, selected from the novels of W. D. Howells by Minnie Macoun. (Houghton.) These selections show Mr. Howells at his best, for as a rule they are taken from his earlier books, and show him in his rôle as a delicate humorist, and parlor philosopher. — Literary Landmarks, a Guide to Good Reading for Young People, and Teachers’ Assistant, by Mary E. Burt. (Houghton.) The value of this little essay is in its suggestiveness. It will set people thinking ; and though we believe that Miss Burt overvalues her own special system of correlating literature, and can carry it out in practice more effectively than any disciple could, it will do no one any harm to listen attentively to what she has to say. In our judgment it is far more important that a child should have the images suggested by imaginative literature than be highly educated as to the exact place of myth and legend and the probable origin of fables.